Fond du Lac doctor is one of 3 in Wisconsin who offers minimally invasive carpal tunnel surgery
FOND DU LAC — Very few doctors conduct carpal tunnel surgery with minimal invasion and recovery time, but SSM Health Fond du Lac Regional Clinic plastic surgeon Richard Schaefer recently treated his 1,000th patient.
Schaefer is one of three doctors in Wisconsin who conducts carpal tunnel release procedures with the guidance of an ultrasound product called UltraGuideCTR, and is the third in the country to reach a milestone 1,000 patients, according to SSM Health Greater Fond du Lac.
Carpal tunnel syndrome affects an estimated 13 million people in the United States, causing pain, numbness and tingling in the hand and arm that can grow to be debilitating.
The pain itself comes from the median nerve of the hand being compressed inside the "carpal tunnel" of bones and ligaments in the wrist, according to Schaefer.
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Traditional carpal tunnel release surgery involves a 1-inch incision on the hand to access the ligament causing pressure on the median nerve, which many patients opt for sedation to get through. The recovery time is about a week before patients can use their hand again, and longer for their pain to fully subside.
The ultrasound guidance procedure Schaefer uses allows him to see the ligament through ultrasound and relieve the pressure with minimal invasion: a small incision farther down the wrist that can usually be closed without sutures, done under local anesthesia.
"The vast majority of patients that come in for the procedure are here because they don’t want to be restricted, out of work or missing their normal activities for a prolonged period of time," Schaefer said. "At the four-day post-op visit, the incision is typically healed. We then clear patients to resume activity without restrictions."
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Steven Sobeck, an anesthesiologist and one of Schaefer's patients, experienced the procedure both ways, one for both hands.
He said the first procedure, the traditional surgery, went well and relieved his symptoms, but the recovery was more intense than he expected it to be. It took a week to be able to use his hand without a lot of discomfort, two weeks before he was back to work and a month or two before he felt back to normal.
With the ultrasound procedure, he felt nothing and could use his hand with minor discomfort the same day.
"It was a night-and-day difference," he said. "I think a week later I was back (at work) and doing everything I needed to do without any problems."
A graduate of Rush Medical College in Chicago, Schaefer completed his plastic surgery residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin and serves the SSM Health Plastic Surgery & Cosmetic Services offices in Fond du Lac, Ripon and Waupun.
For more about Schaefer, visit ssmhealth.com. For more about UltraGuideCTR, visit sonexhealth.com.
Daphne Lemke is the Streetwise reporter for the Fond du Lac Reporter. Contact her at dlemke@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: Carpal tunnel surgery with faster recovery: Fond du Lac doctor uses ultrasound
